Trade statistics released Sept. 5 by the Department of Commerce show that the monthly U.S. trade deficit jumped 13.3% to $39.1 billion in July. Monthly exports fell $1.1 billion from a record high of $191.2 billion in June while imports reversed course and rose $3.5 billion to $228.6 billion. Compared to a year earlier, the July trade deficit was down $4.3 billion as exports rose 3.3% and imports gained 0.8%.

The monthly deficit in goods trade saw an 8.3% increase in July to $58.6 billion. Exports of goods were down $1.1 billion to $132.7 billion while imports rose $3.4 billion to $191.3 billion. The services surplus was down slightly to $19.4 billion as exports were virtually unchanged at $56.7 billion and imports were up $0.1 billion to $37.3 billion.

The bilateral trade deficit with China resumed its upward trend, gaining 13.2% to $30.1 billion. The U.S. also saw bigger deficits with the European Union (up 95.8% to $13.9 billion), Japan (up 23.6% to $6.8 billion), Germany (up 30.6% to $6.4 billion), Saudi Arabia (up 10% to $3.3 billion), Canada (up 55.6% to $2.8 billion), Venezuela (up 91.7% to $2.3 billion), Ireland (up 64.3% to $2.3 billion), Korea (up 37.5% to $2.2 billion) and India (up 110% to $2.1 billion). The only major trading partner with which the U.S. saw its trade deficit decline in July was Mexico (down 14.6% to $4.1 billion).

The Export-Import Bank of the U.S. notes that over the last 12 months, major export markets (those with at least $6 billion in annual imports of U.S. goods) with the largest annualized increases in U.S. goods purchases compared to 2009 were Panama (28.6%), Russia (22.1%), the United Arab Emirates (21.9%), Peru (21.3%), Chile (20.9%), Colombia (19.7%), Hong Kong (19.5%), Argentina (18.3%), Ecuador (18.0%) and South Africa (17.7%). Also during this period U.S. exports have been growing at an annualized rate of 10.2% when compared to 2009.

Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg Trade ReportThe International Trade Commission will hold a public hearing Sept. 25 at the NASA Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif., in conjunction with two ongoing investigations into the role of digital trade in the U.S. and global economies and trade barriers that U.S. small and medium-sized enterprises face in the European Union.Requests to appear at this hearing are due no later than Sept. 12 and pre-hearing briefs and statements should be filed by Sept. 18. Post-hearing briefs and statements are due no later than Oct. 3, and all other written submissions must be filed by Oct. 15 (SMEs) or March 21 (digital trade).Digital Trade. For the purposes of this investigation, digital trade encompasses commerce in products and services delivered via the Internet as well as commerce in products and services that is facilitated by the use of the Internet and Internet-based technologies.The ITC recently completed the first of two investigations on digital trade, which described U.S. digital trade in the context of the broader economy, examined cross-border digital trade and its relationship to other cross-border transactions (e.g., foreign direct investment), described notable barriers and impediments to digital trade, and outlined potential approaches for assessing the linkages and contributions of digital trade to the U.S. economy.The second investigation, which will be the subject of the Sept. 25 hearing, builds on the first to estimate the value of U.S. digital trade and the potential growth of this trade, examine the broader linkages and contributions of digital trade to the U.S. economy, present case studies that examine the importance of digital trade to selected U.S. industries that use or produce such goods and services, and examine the effect of notable barriers to digital trade on selected industries and the broader U.S. economy. The ITC is also examining how other industries, such as financial services and retailing, make use of digital products and services for production and trade. The ITC anticipates submitting its report in this investigation by July 14, 2014.EU Trade Barriers for SMEs. To help inform the recently launched Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership negotiations, the ITC is conducting an investigation of the trade barriers that U.S. SMEs perceive as disproportionately affecting their exports to the EU compared to those of larger exporters. The ITC’s report in this investigation will identify barriers faced by SMEs exporting both goods and services and will focus on sectors with high concentrations of SMEs. The ITC will also address specific trade barriers in individual EU member states and provide qualitative distinctions among the identified barriers.The ITC is already scheduled to hold a public hearing in this investigation Oct. 8 in Washington, D.C. The ITC expects to submit its report to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative no later than Jan. 31, 2014.View Post at: http://www.strtrade.com/news-publications-digital-trade-EU-trade-barriers-082113.html

Transatlantic trade and investment constitute the largest economic relationship in the world, a relationship that is vital to the strength of our economies. The United States and the EU are committed to identifying new ways to strengthen this vibrant economic partnership.

During their 28 November 2011 Summit meeting, U.S. and EU leaders established the High Level Working Group on Jobs and Growth and tasked it to identify policies and measures to increase trade and investment to support mutually beneficial job creation, economic growth, and competitiveness, working closely with public and private sector stakeholder groups, and drawing on existing dialogues and mechanisms, as appropriate.As Leaders requested, the High Level Working Group has made significant progress in analyzing jointly a wide range of potential options for expanding transatlantic trade and investment. These include, but are not limited to the following:• Elimination or reduction of conventional barriers to trade in goods, such as tariffs and tariff-rate quotas.• Elimination, reduction, or prevention of barriers to trade in goods, services, and investment.• Opportunities for enhancing the compatibility of regulations and standards.• Elimination, reduction, or prevention of unnecessary “behind the border” non-tariff barriers to trade in all categories.• Enhanced cooperation for the development of rules and principles on global issues of common concern and also for the achievement of shared economic goals relating to third countries. The High Level Working Group has reached the preliminary conclusion that comprehensive agreement that addresses a broad range of bilateral trade and investment policies as well as issues of common concern with respect to third countries would, if achievable, provide the most significant benefit of the various options we have considered. A comprehensive agreement could include ambitious reciprocal market opening in goods, services, and investment, and address the challenges of modernizing trade rules and enhancing the compatibility of regulatory regimes. Combined with increasingly productive U.S.-EU cooperation on trade issues of common concern, such an initiative could promote a forward-looking agenda for multilateral trade liberalization.While the work of the High Level Working Group has identified mutually beneficial areas in which the United States and the EU could likely agree, it has also identified certain areas in which further substantive work is required before a more definitive recommendation can be made. If we are able to address these issues in a satisfactory manner, we would envision pursuing a comprehensive agreement with the following elements.TariffsThe goal would be to eliminate all duties on bilateral trade, with the shared objective of achieving a substantial elimination of tariffs upon entry into force and a phasing out of all but the most sensitive tariffs in a short time frame. In the course of negotiations, both sides would consider options for the treatment of the most sensitive products.Regulatory Issues and Non-Tariff BarriersThe shared ambition would be to progressively move to a more integrated transatlantic marketplace, while respecting fully the right of each side to regulate in a manner that ensures the protection of health, safety, and the environment at the level that each side deems appropriate. The two sides would therefore seek to negotiate:

• An ambitious “SPS-plus” chapter, including establishing a bilateral forum for improved dialogue and cooperation on SPS issues.

• Horizontal disciplines on regulatory coherence and transparency for goods and services, including early consultations on significant regulations, impact assessment, upstream regulatory cooperation, and good regulatory practices.

• Provisions or annexes containing additional commitments or steps aimed at promoting regulatory compatibility over time in specific, mutually agreed sectors.In view of the importance of developing an ambitious and realistic approach to regulatory differences that unnecessarily impede trade, the two sides would invite stakeholders to present, before the end of the year, concrete proposals to address the impact on trade of those differences. Such proposals would be reviewed by both sides with the aim of developing during the course of negotiations concrete action plans to reduce unnecessary regulatory costs and promote regulatory compatibility, while respecting legitimate regulatory objectives.ServicesThe aim of negotiations would be to bind the existing autonomous level of liberalization of both parties at the highest level of liberalization captured in existing FTAs, while seeking to achieve new market access through efforts to address remaining long-standing market access barriers, recognizing the sensitive nature of certain sectors. Furthermore, the United States and the EU would include binding commitments to provide transparency, impartiality and due process with regard to licensing and qualification requirements and procedures, as well as enhancing the regulatory principles included in current U.S. and EU FTAs.InvestmentThe aim would be to negotiate investment liberalization and protection provisions on the basis of the highest levels of liberalization and protection that both sides have negotiated to date.ProcurementThe goal of the negotiations would be to enhance business opportunities through substantially improved access to government procurement opportunities at all levels of government on the basis of national treatment.

IPR Both the EU and the United States are committed to a high level of intellectual property protection, including enforcement, and cooperate extensively through the Transatlantic IPR Working Group. Both sides agree that it would not be feasible in negotiations to seek to reconcile across the board differences in the IPR obligations that each typically includes in its comprehensive trade agreements. Before the launch of any negotiations, both sides would further consult on possible approaches to deal with IPR matters in a mutually satisfactory manner.

Rules

In several additional areas that are important to trade and investment, the two sides would aim to develop a set of 21st century rules, which could be of relevance not only for bilateral commerce but also contribute to rule-making in third-country policies and trade agreements and at the multilateral level. The following areas have been provisionally identified as possible components of a comprehensive agreement: (a) trade facilitation/customs; (b) trade-related aspects of competition and state-owned enterprises; (c) trade-related aspects of labour and environment; (d) horizontal provisions on small- and medium-sized enterprises; (e) strengthening supply chains; and (f) access to raw materials and energy.

Conclusion

Based on our work thus far, the co-chairs of the High Level Working Group believe that a comprehensive transatlantic trade and investment agreement, if achievable, is the option that has the greatest potential for supporting jobs and promoting growth and competitiveness across the Atlantic.

At the same time, careful preparation is needed to ensure that such a negotiation, if undertaken, would deliver concrete results and would be concluded in a timely manner. The High Level Working Group will work as expeditiously as possible in the coming months, in consultation with public and private sector stakeholders, to continue to analyze the different components of a comprehensive transatlantic agreement and make a final recommendation to Leaders.

It was a golden year for international trade through the Miami Customs District in 2012, as South Florida’s airports and seaports handled a record $124.73 billion worth of trade and cracked into the nation’s Top 10 customs districts for the first time.But the Miami district’s top exports and imports were also golden. Since 2009, gold from countries such as Colombia, Mexico, Guyana and Peru has been South Florida’s top import as skittish investors bought the precious metal, pushing its price to lofty heights. In 2012, gold also became the top export of the Miami district, which includes airports and seaports from Miami to Key West.Last year the district imported a record $7.25 billion worth of gold — a 42 percent increase over the previous year, according to new U.S. Census Bureau data analyzed by WorldCity, a Coral Gables media company that focuses on U.S. connections to the global economy. But almost as quickly as the gold arrives, it is shipped out, primarily to Switzerland and to other European countries in smaller amounts. Last year the Miami district exported a record $7.93 billion worth of gold.The gold business is a “relatively recent phenomenon,” Ken Roberts, president of WorldCity, said at a Trade Connections event in Coral Gables Friday that analyzed the past year’s trade numbers.Global economic uncertainty, he said, has driven people to the safety of gold and that has pushed up prices. Not only are central banks buying gold, so are many jittery investors.Miami became the nation’s leading importer of gold in 2009 but imports only totaled $2.14 billion then. Over the past 10 years, the Miami district’s gold imports have increased by 2,420 percent and gold exports are up a whopping 13,433 percent. That corresponds with a huge run-up in the price of gold over the past decade — from around $300 an ounce in mid-February 2002 to $1,730 an ounce in mid-February 2012. Roberts noted that overall, Miami district exports increased to a record $73.3 billion, up nearly 6 percent from the previous year, and imports totaled a record $51.4 billion — a 17 percent increase. Most interesting, Roberts said, is that the Miami district made its move into the ranks of the nation’s Top 10 customs districts, by value of trade, at a time when the U.S. economy has been sluggish. But 30 percent of Miami’s trade is with South American, Central America and the Caribbean, and many of the Latin economies have been relatively resilient throughout the U.S. downturn. Brazil remained the Miami district’s No. 1 trading partner in 2012 with $16.4 billion in total trade — a 6.4 percent increase. “Brazil has had a tremendous decade and they’re a little smug about it,” said Scott Miller, a senior advisor at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies and former director of global trade policy at Procter & Gamble. “It’s a tough place to do business and they know it and don’t seem to want to do much about it.”Miami traders acknowledge that restrictions and high tariffs make the Brazilian market difficult, but Latin America’s largest economy is so big and diverse that it’s still very attractive. Brazil also is the top source of international visitors to Miami-Dade County. Colombia, with $9.89 billion in trade with the Miami district, was the 2012 runner-up, and Switzerland, with $8.8 billion in trade with South Florida, was third.But trade statistics only tell part of the story of international commerce.Miller pointed out that increasingly, world trade involves the exchange of components rather than finished goods. If one takes out oil, he said, half the world’s trade is in components. He pointed to Apple’s iPhone, which is made in China from U.S. and Japanese chips, a screen from Malaysia and other components from around the world. “So many things today are made in the world,’’ rather than manufactured start to finish in one location, said Miller. “What is really being done is that we make things together.’’ Every iPhone that is imported into the United States, he said, adds $178 to the U.S. trade deficit, but that doesn’t take into account all the jobs created by Apple’s inventions and design development, its sophisticated customer service system and its marketing apparatus.“Stop looking at trade as a competition,” he said. “It’s a mutually beneficial exchange.” Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/02/15/3236848/south-florida-trade-shattered.html#storylink=cpy

The Malaysia Trade Office in Miami has the pleasure of inviting your company to participate in the “Sourcing from Malaysia” program, a buying mission, which will be held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from April 1-4, 2013. The program is organized in conjunction with the 10th International Halal Showcase (MIHAS) which is the largest Halal exhibition in the world. The exhibition attracts more than 35,000 visitors, 650 buyers from 60 different countries every year and many of them had profited from the business deals made.

Besides meeting Malaysian suppliers of good export track record, you will stand to benefit from MIHAS which showcases a wide range of high quality food & beverages, food ingredients and related raw materials, cosmetics, herbal and pharmaceutical products, among others. For more information, please visit www.mihas.com.my.MIHAS 2013 is an ideal platform for you to establish contact with world class suppliers.

Participants of this Program will enjoy the following incentives:

1. Pre-arranged one-on-one business meetings with Malaysian exporters on April 2, 2013; 2. Free hotel accommodation of one room (single or double) per company for a 3-night stay (check-in April 1 & check-out April 4, 2013); and 3. Airport / hotel transfers between Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA), Hotel and Venue of the business meetings (MENARA MATRADE).

We look forward to see your participation and appreciate your response by February 4, 2013. Should you have any inquiries, please do not hesitate to contact me or Mr. Michael Holley, the Marketing Manager at tel: 1-305.267.8779 or send en mail to miami@matrade.gov.my.

By MARTIN CRUTSINGER AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON --U.S. demand for long-lasting manufactured goods rose sharply in December, helped by a strong gain in volatile aircraft orders. But companies slowed orders for computers and other goods that signal investment plans, indicating manufacturing could stay weak in 2013.The Commerce Department said Monday that overall orders for durable goods increased 4.6 percent in December compared with November. The gains were led by a 56.4 percent increase in military aircraft orders and a 10.1 percent increase in commercial aircraft orders.Orders for machinery, communications equipment and primary metals such as steel also showed increases. Still, demand for core capital goods, a measure of business investment plans, rose just 0.2 percent. That followed two straight monthly gains of 3 percent.Orders for durable goods, which are expected to last at least three years, can fluctuate from month to month. For all of 2012, durable goods orders rose 4.1 percent. But demand for core capital goods fell 0.3 percent for the year.Slower growth in business orders has hurt manufacturing, which struggled to gain momentum in 2012. While orders for durable goods rebounded in the final months of last year, economists expect the overall trend to stay weak this year."The strength in durable goods orders for December is a most welcome development," said Dan Greenhaus, an analyst at BTIG. "Going forward though, despite the better numbers, we still expect business investment ... to slow yet again in 2013. This is a trend that remains in place given the weaker demand environment."Paul Ashworth, chief U.S. economist at Capital Economics, said the growth rate of business investment in equipment and software in the October-December quarter should come in close to 5 percent, an encouraging sign.Ashworth, however, is worried about an increase in Social Security payroll taxes, which hit Americans in January and is expected to slow consumer spending at the start of the year. That could make businesses nervous and further slow economic growth.The economy grew at an annual rate of 3.1 percent in the April-June quarter. The government will provide its first look at overall economic growth in the October-December quarter on Wednesday. Many analysts believe growth slowed in the final three months of last year to less than 2 percent.The government releases its first estimate of economic growth for the fourth quarter on Wednesday. Read more here:http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/01/28/3204583/us-durable-goods-orders-rise-46.html#storylink=cpy

The Associated Press SANTIAGO, Chile -- Latin America and the Caribbean will see strong economic growth in 2013 despite Europe's fiscal woes and a struggling U.S. economy, the UN's regional economic body said on Tuesday.The region is expected to expand by 3.8 percent in 2013, mainly due to a recovery of Argentina and Brazil, and higher internal demand in several nations."This shows that the global economic crisis had a negative but not dramatic effect in the continent, which kept for most of the year a certain resilience to face shocks from abroad," Alicia Barcena, head of the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), told reporters in Santiago. The estimate for growth next year is slightly lower than ECLAC's previous forecast of 4 percent.A recession in Europe and sluggish growth in China and the U.S. eroded the global economy in 2012 with dwindling world trade and output, ECLAC said in its latest report. Latin America's was hit by slower growth in two of its regional powerhouses.Argentina grew 2.2 percent in 2012 versus a neck-breaking 8.9 percent last year, while Brazil slowed down to 1.2 versus 2.7 percent in 2011.ECLAC expects Argentina to grow by 3.9 percent next year. Brazil is set to expand by 4 percent, mainly due to a recovery of industrial activity, internal consumption and a hike in exports.Chile is expected to expand by 4.8 percent and Peru by 6 percent next year.Regional economies, however, will remain largely dependent on world economic trends.Europe's slow growth and even recession in some cases will continue in throughout 2013. "Although this might also give rise to agreements that could gradually lead to a resolution of the financial, fiscal and competition imbalances that are currently in place," ECLAC said.The report also says the probability of a fiscal agreement in the U.S increased after the presidential elections. China will post a higher expansion this year or keep current levels, depending on how much the Asian giant lifts its internal demand, tames inflationary pressures and recovers its export growth.The Caribbean economies, which grew 1.1 percent as a whole in 2012, will remain fragile and will need reform with outside help."The challenge for Latin America and the Caribbean is still to increase and stabilize investment growth," Barcena said."Not to depend exclusively on consumption as a means of driving structural change with equality, incorporating technical progress and delivering sustainable growth."Panama was the region's fastest growing regional economy in 2012 with a 10.5 percent expansion, followed by Peru's 6.2 percent, Chile's 5.5 percent and Venezuela's 5.3 percent.ECLAC expects the region to close 2012 with a 3.1 percent growth. That is higher than expected numbers for world expansion of 2.2 percent but lower than the region's 4.3 percent growth last year. Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/12/11/3137076/un-latin-america-to-grow-by-38.html#storylink=cpy